Tag Archives: art

My Xara brother-in-arms Gary Priester asked me to explain how the grids are used in thangka painting, so I decided to make a small 101 to indulge him. However, before I start with the explanation there are a few things to understand.

Firstly, Buddhist figures are not meant to be human-like but rather are icons of perfection, typifying a wide variety of Buddhist views and ideas. Their basic shape is highly stylized and has to abide to a strict set of traditional rules, regarding the shape and colouring of the figure up to the most auspicious moment the eyes should be finalized.